Bounty chairman Gary Cochrane told the company's annual general meeting this approach would provide a platform for future longer-term projects including Cook North, Minyango and Wongai in Queensland.

 

"The focus over the next three months is based on upgrading or replacing some of the older equipment that was initially rented or restarted during the mine start-up phase," Cochrane said. 

 

"This includes replacement of some low reliability rental shuttle cars and a low performance rental continuous miner."

 

Cochrane said Bounty had adopted a rigorous maintenance regime to ensure ongoing reliability of the fleet until it was replaced with better equipment.

 

"The ongoing addition of new spares and inventory, including two retired continuous miners will be used as spare parts, and upgrading cutter heads and coding on existing spare parts, will also improve overall plant performance," he said.

 

"So, all in all a great opportunity for Bounty to continue to grow as a company and move to a profitable operation as the mining continues to consolidate, equipment performance improves, and production steadily grows."